MadaboutKitcars

I think that you have a winner with the original front.

Spent some time on the car today.

Still awaiting the Perspex for the windscreen but fitted the bonnet bits and pieces.



Covered headlights.


After much trial and error I ended up with these lights and will try to find a chrome reversing/number plate combination light.


To late to do a paint job for Stoneleigh so the red will have to do

The front does looks much better all in one colour.

I hope it goes down well at Stoneleigh.

Good luck, Paul.

Yes , good luck at Stoneleigh ...I hope you sell a few units ...I always came home from shows deflated at the lack of orders actually taken , but over the following months they used to drift in quoting the show as where they saw it ...

Exactly what I did, '66 sold it to me at a show and I spent the next few months scraping the money together so I could place an order -



That was in 2011 - OMG, that's five years ago...

That's the way I see things happening but although the car is still some what "work in progress" it is presentable and if I don't make Stoneleigh now I'll have to wait another year

I will try and build a well finished example ready for the Castle Combe show in June.

Is that the finished body Mick or a buck?

It will be the "buck", but fitted to a drivable Spitfire showing how it fits around the original donor body .

I was only thinking that you had modded the front so wondered if it was a one off

alls clear now I look forward to seeing it at Stoneleigh

Did it get a good reaction? It'd be great to see some nice photographs of it in good light.

I saw it at Stoneleigh and it looked a very pleasing shape.

However (and as if I know anything) I wonder about the wisdom of selling a kit that makes use of the Spit main body tub. I traded up to my Miglia to avoid all the rust problems, and it is the sills etc that are the problem area.

So genuinely curious. I know it will make it seem an easier build, but it seems to be building in a lot of future rust.

Will be interested to hear what others think.

Regards

Marc

This car is built using the Spitfire body tub to make for a easier and quicker build unlike the previous Sammio range, and I include the Miglia in that range, that are quite a demanding build in terms of time, expense, skill and ability.

If the body tub is repaired and sealed correctly (easy to do when it's stripped down) there will be no issues with rust.
The "trouble some" sills end up being covered by the body tub so no exposure the elements unlike the out-riggers on the Herald/Miglia build.
If the builder wants they could even cover the whole exposed areas in fiberglass.
The Herald chassis has a reputation for the out-rigger to rust out in the same way. But again, if these are repaired and sealed correctly there will be no issues with rust but unlike this car the Herald problem areas are still exposed to the elements after the build is completed.
If "future rust" was an issue to be considered then this build has it covered, literally!!!

Stoneleigh 2016.

After much effort the Alpha made it to the show and although it had a crappy paint job it didn't look out-of-place among the other kit and it was the cheapest in the show.



The sun was out today so was the car.




The car looks very "retro" so I have been playing with wheel spats.


Not to everyone's taste but if the car was in the right colour and the right trim they would not look out of place.

Wouldn't the usual "precautions" proscribed for chassis-building address any worries over "further rusting?" Fertan, Rustoleum Rust Reformer and several other non-phosphoric acid based converters are readily available, giving a conversion to an iron tannate surface which can (read: must) be coated with an Alkythane-type paint and zinc chromate primer before final painting. Once primed and painted, an iron tannate surface will, of course, rust, but the passage of an hundred years or so will be required for it to do so, and by then - at age 125 to 150 or so - very few kit car builders will care.

Of course, if one begins with a rusted chassis and does nothing but bolt on a different body, the choice of one chassis over another might be a consideration, but I doubt that many self-builders would do this... it takes away all the fun of wire-brushing, bead-blasting, surface-treating, sealing, priming and painting a chassis, thus reducing the time spent in the garage by several hundred hours - time which one will, no doubt, need spend with one's Wife instead. Here in America, we'd call this a "no-brainer." Another coat of primer on the chassis, or sitting in the parlour listening to complaints about one's sister-in-law's husband's employer's dog's habits. You lads just sit here and listen - I'll be in the garage with a couple of Shepherd Neame’s double stouts.

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Three thousand miles apart but things sound no different your side of the pond. Thank heavens for hobbies.

The same everywhere, Mister Towed (I love the automotive moniker, and wonder if its intent is to recall Grahame's The Wind In The Willows or Milne's Toad of Toad Hall?), since the day that Eve said to Adam, "put down that vile spanner and have a bite of this apple." You can, if you've a mind to, count six bays here:

http://www.mediaevalbooks.com/yyard.jpg

and if one accidentally leaves the lights burning in several buildings at once, one's whereabouts can never be easily guessed. If one "forgets" to carry one's mobile out into the garage, the barn, the shop, the carriage house, or the woods, why... it's almost as if one were wearing pool old Bilbo's Ring.

By the way, I likewise love your resurrection of Alberto Ascari's Lancia D24, and have wondered often - if I don't seem to be prying - why you chose silver over red? The red ones go faster, you know....

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Nice place T-A-C, wish I had that much space to play in.

Glad you like my Spyder, I'm rather fond of it myself.

The moniker's a play on words, deliberately misspelling the Wind in the Willows character's name due to the expectation of breaking down in my home-built special and probably having to be towed home all the time (it's only happened once so far...)

As for the colour, I like silver.

Oh, and it helps throw people off the scent of it not being a real 50's racing car due to the following thought processes in the average observer -

1/ who in their right mind would build a replica Lancia?

2/ Who in their right mind would then paint it silver?

3/ It must be the real thing!

Each point well-made and well-taken. Frankly, I more than simply like the Sammio / Miglia lines - I like them enough to have caused Chris to foolishly agree to building a rolling example for export to America. Despite Gary's protestations over his influences, there's so little difference between the Sammio and the mid-year ('53 - '54) D24 that you'd need a good tape rule and a sharp eye to sort them out. Plug the mould for doors, add the air scoop atop the driver's wing, and it's more difficult still to tell it from the D24.

The drop-nose concept gives full access to the engine bay ("I really wish I could go with you to shop for shoes, dear, but I need to pull the engine to-day..."), and with a slightly more aggressive powerplant (recalling your day at the dyno-tuners post), I expect that it could be rather a joy to drive. I expect with a bit of reinforcing and height adjusting, and the lowest of low-rises atop, that an American small-block (ten-a-penny here) would snuggle down under the bonnet, given enough swear words, coaxing and a sufficient quantity of stout (the lubricative properties of which cannot be stressed too strongly). One can even resort to buying a long block, and dispensing with all the fun of honing, assembly, and molylube-covered everything:

MAAAOxyRNJSniO1&vxp=mtr" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevy-383-Stroker-Engine-with-Proheader-1-aluminum-heads-444-HP-464-Torque-/131801966494?hash=item1eb002679e:gMAAAOxyRNJSniO1&vxp=mtr

The yield here hovers in the 550 hp per ton range, and given decent transaxle gearing, should propel the little car some few miles per hour beyond the 55 mph limit in force throughout most of America, with power-to-weight ratio a tad better than the Bugatti Veyron, but without the nasty body styling that suggests that the car was designed by a monkey who'd somehow gotten hold of a crayon and a piece of paper.

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Micky1Mo - The car looked good in the various photos from Stoneleigh.

Can I just double check what the kit is going to be called?
( Spyder vs. Alpha )

As for the "spats", I think they would need a straight bottom edge, flush with the bodywork.

Which certainly worked for Jaguar.



Although my (limited) understanding is it was usually spats with steel wheels & no spats with wires.

Good luck, Paul.

Risks looking like a trike...

And if one spends on wires, one most definitely wants the world to see them all!!!

But a big block in a Spitfire/herald chassis - scary! I have a Lancia twin cam and five-speed waiting to go into mine, and I reckon that will be interesting enough...

Small block, really (the 383 stroker is nothing more than a healthy, happy 350).

The twin cam sounds like an excellent choice; Aurelio Lampredi's aluminum wonder can be tweaked and prodded to do most anything you like - and when you're finished, you'll surprise those chaps in their 308s by giving them a glimpse of your tail lamps.

I turned over in my mind the possibility of using the two-and-a-half litre Lancia V6, but as you doubtless know, they're the devil to maintain properly, and the cost of building one today is fourfold more:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LANCIA-B24-AURELIA-Rare-V6-Engine-Block-1-HEAD-1956-Convertible-Spider-America-/182084425777?fits=Make%3ALancia&hash=item2a6513d831:g:SIsAAOSw4bVTl6qp&vxp=mtr

I'm actually in a little hamlet called Olcott Beach - notorious for only one thing - one of the largest weekly cruise nights, and annual car shows in the U.S. There's a fellow here with a Spitfire who came upon these two articles:

http://www.dailyturismo.com/2012/08/10k-1975-triumph-spitfire-v8-swap.html

http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?3,4838

some time back, and began building a similar setup for his. He's in the "what do I do now?" stage, trying to find the right balance between the torque and revs (he's on his third try with a rear end) as he's a professional machinist and can't leave well enough alone. His engineering - though seat-of-the-pants style - is sound (great skills - he could weld a stainless steel beak on a chicken), but his maths could use some help. Can't fault his build, however - he's making 630HP actual on the dyno with a low-rise mani and twin intakes which still permit him to close the bonnet (albeit over a rather tall air intake. not unlike the one on the blue car in the second link), so a mild 350 / 383 should be tame by comparison, and can be maintained and tuned by even the most dimwitted of monkeys.

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love the new car, but i think i still prefer the Lancia the front end. The new one looks a lot like the original "German" bonnet (if memory serves me right?)

But with that being said, it's still a lovely car and yet another good evolution of the brand

What Dave said......

What the other Yank said. Sorry.

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davecymru to be clear..

Oh sure, Dave; it's always, "Dave, Dave, Dave," 'round here. Beio y Cymro tlawd.



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